Three Cheers for the Red White and Blue

I always seem to start a seasonal quilt in whichever season it happens to be, even though I know it won't be ready to enjoy this year, but I'll be WAY ahead for next year!  This Three Cheers quilt will be good for the entire summer season!  I used the Crazy Ohio Star block found in the Half Crazy book.  Because the stacking and cutting are a bit different than directed in the book, which stacks and shuffles for only 3 fabrics per block, here's a quick how-to for the stacking and shuffling.

Because these blocks are totally  scrappy, with a different fabric in each position, the fabric must be stacked and cut in two piles, one with all lights, and one with the darks (reds and blues).  As you stack have contrast from one fabric to the next mixing up color, scale, plaids, stripes and prints. To the left is an example of how I stacked my fabric. Yardage packs with these fabric are available HERE

Remember, you need one fabric for each block required.  This quilt is 5 x 5 = 25 blocks but you must have equal numbers of lights and darks so 13 lights and 13 darks are required which gives you an extra block as a label on the back!  You can get one of these blocks per fat quarter, or you can get 3 blocks across the width of a half yard is you'd like to make it bigger.

TRACE the pattern onto freezer paper onto freezer paper as directed, iron a template onto each stack of fabrics, and cut the pattern out of each stack as directed.   

TRADE the star pieces, A2, A3, A4, B2, B3, C2, C3, D2 and D3, placing the light stars in the dark stack and the dark stars in the light stack.  

SHUFFLE so that you have a different fabric in each position. I usually shuffle all the lights first and them repeat for all the darks so that I can keep track of what I'm doing, but if this is your first time shuffling, here is a suggested shuffling pattern:

A.  For pieces A1 and A2,  put the top fabric on the bottom of each of these piles.

B.  For pieces B1 and B2,  put the top TWO fabrics on the bottom of each of these piles.

C.  For pieces B3 and B4, put the top THREE fabrics on the bottom of each of these piles.

D.  For pieces C1 and C2, put the top FOUR fabrics on the bottom of each of these piles.

E.  For pieces C3 and C4,  put the top FIVE fabrics on the bottom of each of these piles.

F.  For pieces D1 and D2,  put the top SIX fabrics on the bottom of each of these piles.

G.  For pieces D3 and D4,  put the top SEVEN fabrics on the bottom of each of these piles.

H.  For piece A3,  put the top EIGHT fabrics on the bottom of each of these piles.

I.  Pieces A4 and D5 are now different than the rest and can remain the same.

PIECE the blocks as directed on page 19 for the Happily So quilt in the book.

Layout the blocks in a checkerboard as shown in the top photo, or here is an alternate layout you might like. 

I chose to use the leftover portion of my fat quarters to add 2" scrappy red, white and blue borders as shown in the top photo.  Please note that you probably won't have enough of the red and blue to get all the way around and will need to add to the leftovers.  

Then I took it one step further and added a red, white, and blue bias binding (again you won't bet the binding out of the leftovers and will need to purchase additional fabric).  Here's how: cut 2.5" strips and stitch in a strip set as shown. Cut 2.5" bias strips for the binding.

And here's one last photo of the backing (photo bomb by Frank) with the extra block used as a label. This one's definitely worth  Three Cheers! Enjoy!

Janet